AppleenableslowerpricetiersfortheAppStoreinCanadaandNewZealand

Apple has just enabled a couple of lower price tiers for the App Store in Canada and New Zealand, following a recent hike in the prices of apps in those countries.

In an announcement posted on its official developer portal, Apple says that the lower price tiers, Alternate Tier A and Alternate Tier B, are now available to allow developers to offer their paid apps and in-app purchases at $0.99 (CAD and NZD). “Existing apps that already use these price tiers have been automatically updated,” the company notes.

As noted by MacRumors, Apple last week raised the Tier 1 minimum App Store price to $1.39 CAD in Canada and $1.49 NZD in New Zealand, which is equivalent to $0.99 in the U.S. But with the new alternate price tiers, developers can choose to set a lower price in Canada and New Zealand for an app or in-app purchase that is offered at $0.99 in the U.S.

In effect, the newly enabled lower price tiers let developers sell their apps on the App Store in Canada and New Zealand at more affordable prices, albeit at less profit, given the price increase recently applied by Apple to apps in those countries due to exchange rate fluctuations.

Currency instability has also been cited by Apple as a factor behind its low year-on-year growth percentage.

As announced by Apple CEO Tim Cook in the company’s earnings call for the recent holiday quarter, Apple generated 2 percent over the same period in the previous year from an all-time record quarterly revenue of $75.9 billion. “This is a huge accomplishment for our company, especially given the turbulent world around us,” Cook said. “In constant currency, our growth rate would have been 8 percent.”

Going back to the App Store, Apple had earlier announced that last holiday season was the App Store’s “biggest ever,” with a record-breaking iOS app sales total of $1.1 billion. A subsequent analyst estimate determined that Apple pulled in approximately $6.4 billion in revenue in 2015 from App Store purchases.